iCurl Bonspiel 2013

Posted on Friday, March 22, 2013 at 2:06pm

The Royal Caledonian Curling Club are pleased to announce the iCURL BONSPIEL will be held at Kinross Ice Rink on Friday 5th April 2013.
The Bonspiel is open to all curlers with an emphasis on the inclusion and integration of curlers who have a physical or sensory impairment or play using a curling stick. Entry is on an individual basis and teams will be drawn on the day to include curlers from each of the adaptive programs. The Entry Fee includes morning tea/coffee, a minimum of 3×4 end games, lunch and afternoon tea/coffee.

For further information or to download an Entry Form click here

or contact Sheila Swan

E-mail – Sheila@royalcaledoniancurlingclub.org

Northern Ontario rink aims for Canadian Wheelchair Curling podium

By Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com

• 
  Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com
  Team Northern Ontario begins the Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship Monday in Ottawa. Front, from left: Skip Gino Sonego, vice Doug Dean, second Richard Dawid and lead Lola Graham. Back, from left: Coaches Mike Bergquist and Doug Gelmich

Gino Sonego isn’t sure his Northern Ontario squad is ready to dethrone Saskatchewan and capture the Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship next week in Ottawa.

But the Thunder Bay skip isn’t ruling out a medal finish.

“Anything can happen. Our expectation right now is to at least be on the podium in the final and then anything can happen after that,” said Sonego, who will join lead Lola Graham, second Richard Dawid and third Doug Dean in the nation’s capital.

He credited the growth of the game in Thunder Bay for their success.

Sonego said there are two national-class wheelchair curling teams in the city, which helps keep their games sharp.

But they could always use a little more competition, he said.

“We’re always looking for new players who are interested in coming out. But it’s a challenge,” he said.

“Some people will be interested for three or four years and then they’ll move on and then you lose that continuity.

“And then there’s female curlers. There aren’t that many female curlers that are out there that want to try the sport. It’s always a challenge, but we’re out there trying to grow the sport,” Sonego said.
Northern Ontario coach Michael Bergquist said he’s already losing sleep at the thought of the start of competition, wondering what he can do to help the team win.

“It’s been an uphill climb for us, but we finally made it there and it’s exciting beyond words,” Bergquist said.

“They put a lot of practice in. This team has really dedicated to improving their game. They spend a lot of time on the ice, a lot of their own time.”

They practice twice a week, play once and several team members are at Fort William Curling Club two or three more times a week working on their game.

“We’ve been curling for six years and we’ve really gotten our game together. At Kenora you could see it all coming together as the weekend kept going. We felt we were on a roll. We’ve played a few men’s league games since we came back and we’re still on a roll, still doing things right. We want to carry that on.”

Northern Ontario opens play Monday morning at the RA Centre in Ottawa against Manitoba, followed by an afternoon duel with Nova Scotia.

Round robin play wraps up Friday, with playoffs scheduled to begin on Saturday morning, if no tiebreakers are required.

The final is slotted for March 31 at 3 p.m.

Local curlers to compete at nationals

Jon Thurston of Dunsford and Chrissy Molnar of Bobcaygeon, along with their teammates Ken Gregory and Collindra Joseph, will head off to compete in the Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championships in Ottawa March 24-31

(KAWARTHA LAKES) Two local curlers are proving that no matter your physical abilities hard work, determination and a little heart can go a long way.

Jon Thurston of Dunsford and Chrissy Molnar of Bobcaygeon had never curled before this year, let alone in wheelchairs, but after perseverance - both from them and their coach Carl Rennick - they will find themselves competing for Ontario at the Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championships in Ottawa this weekend.

"Obviously we all work very hard at practicing and we just want to do our best," says Mr. Thurston.
"I think we can compete well with the team we have."

Mr. Rennick literally found both local players - approaching Ms Molnar at the Bobcaygeon Fair and Mr. Thurston at the Lindsay Recreational Complex - and asked them if they would want to join a wheelchair curling team out of Bradford, which includes existing members Ken Gregory, who is the team's skip, and Collindra Joseph, from Ottawa, who have been playing together for seven years.
Mr. Thurston also plays with the senior men's league in Peterborough, and adds that, when it comes to curling, he likes the fact that it doesn't matter who is throwing the stone.

"There's a bit of a disadvantage [because] we don't have a sweeper, but we just adjust and we can compete with anybody, so it's great. And a very social sport," Mr. Thurston adds.
Ms Molnar originally couldn't even curl at her home town curling club because it was not accessible, but once the ice maker in Bobcaygeon was made aware of issue, he created a ramp to the back door, giving her direct access to the ice.

Since the team is so spread apart, they have to make an effort to practice together every chance they get, which includes practices once a week in Peterborough with Mr. Thurston, Ms Molnar and Mr Gregory when he can make it, as well as the local curlers getting together as often as they can at in Bobcaygeon.

In fact, the first time the team played together - and Ms Molnar's first official game ever - was at an international Cathy Kerr bonspiel in Ottawa in early December, where they placed fourth out of 16 teams.

After a few precious practices together as a whole team, they won the provincial championships in Gananoque in late January.

"For their first year curling at all, they've just done so well and they work really hard," notes Mr. Rennick.

Both curlers say the relatively new team works very well together.

"Everyone seems to be really positive, too," says Ms Molnar.

"There's not a lot of fighting on the ice, even when we're down, everyone's really helping towards each other."

And given that Mr. Gregory has made it to nationals three times, and Ms Joseph has been once before, they bring a valuable measure of experience to the team, which will help the more novice curlers, particularly with the mental aspect of the game, says Mr. Rennick.
"It's really easy to get wrapped up in the heat of the moment and you really need to know how to focus on the task at hand."

But, overall, Mr. Rennick says all four players have what it takes to excel in the sport.
The Canadian Wheelchair National Championships begin March 24, and consist of nine, round-robin matches leading into playoff games, with the final set to take place March 31.
"I just want to thank our whole team and all the help we've had, I mean we have an abundant source of coaches it seems and everybody has been willing to help us, it's been great," says Mr. Thurston, referring to many coaches including Dave Farnell and Bruce Gors who have helped out when Mr. Rennick has been unavailable.

Although, to the best of their knowledge, none of the games will be televised, fans can check on scores on the Canadian Curling Association website.

Both curlers agree that they are looking forward to putting into practice all their hard work in a competitive setting, not to mention getting to meet great people from across the country.

"This is just going to be a great experience," says Mr. Thurston.

"We get to meet a lot of great people and play some really good competitive teams that will make us play hard and do our best."

Svensk Rullstolscurling Swedish Wheelchair Curling

Partnership game in wheelchair in Karlstad, Sweden.  Will be interesting to see who is the champion on Sunday. We have the World Championships silver medallists in four of the law!

CCA offical release - Nationals start Monday!

For Immediate Release

March 20, 2013

 

Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship begins Monday in Ottawa

 

OTTAWA — The 10^th Canadian Wheelchair Curling Championship gets underway Monday at the RA Centre in Ottawa.

 

Ten teams will compete in a round robin from March 25-29, leading to the Page playoff system (1 vs 2, winner to final, loser to semifinal; 3 vs 4, winner to semifinal, loser eliminated) on Saturday, March 30, with the semifinal (10 a.m. EDT) and final (3 p.m. EDT) scheduled for Sunday, March 31.

 

The roster includes a number of Canadian and world champions. Back to defend their Canadian title won last year in Thunder Bay are Saskatchewan’s Darwin Bender, from the Callie Curling Club in Regina, along with teammates Gil Dash, Marie Wright and Larry Schrader.

 

In last year’s final, Bender defeated Alberta’s Bruno Yizek, 7-6 in an extra end. Yizek, representing the Calgary Curling Club, is also returning with his team of Jack Smart, Martin Purvis and Anne Hibberd intact.    

 

Yizek was the alternate for Canada (skip Jim Armstrong) when winning gold medals at both the 2010 Paralympic Games in Vancouver and the 2011 World Wheelchair Curling Championship in Prague.  

 

British Columbia will be directed by two-time Canadian champion Gary Cormack, whose team represents both the Marpole Curling Club of Vancouver and Richmond Curling Club, while his third, Frank La Bounty, is a three-time Canadian champion.

 

Manitoba’s Chris Sobkowicz of Winnipeg returns with third Dennis Thiessen and lead Melissa Lecuyer, who teamed to win the 2011 Canadian title in Edmonton. 

 

Sobkowicz, who curls out of Assiniboine Memorial, was the alternate for Canada (skip Jim Armstrong) when the team captured a gold medal at the 2009 World Wheelchair Curling Championship in Vancouver. Thiessen played third for Canada (skip Jim Armstrong) when the team won gold last month at the 2013 World Wheelchair Curling Championship in Sochi, Russia.

 

Rounding out the field are New Brunswick (skip Michael Fitzgerald of Saint John), Newfoundland/Labrador (Joanne MacDonald of St. John’s), Northern Ontario (Gino Sonego of Thunder Bay), Nova Scotia (Trendal Hubley-Bolivar of Lower Sackville), Ontario (Ken Gregory of Bradford) and Quebec (Benoît Lessard of Magog).

 

Since the inaugural Canadian championship in 2004, British Columbia has four wins— in 2007 (skip Darryl Neighbour), 2008 and 2009 (Armstrong) and in 2010 (Cormack). Team Canada (skip Chris Daw) has three victories while Manitoba and Saskatchewan have each won once.

 

For media inquiries during the event, contact Danny Lamoureux (dlamoureux@curling.ca/613-878-3682) or Paul Noble (pnoble@curling.ca/613-355-7328).

 

Draw results and other event information will be available at www.curling.ca and http://www.curling.ca/championships/wheelchair.

Ideson sets sights on Sochi

By Todd Devlin Metro London

The highs and lows of Mark Ideson’s life over the last six years should be easy to pinpoint.

The ultimate low was when the now-36-year-old married father of two was laid out in a hospital bed six years ago with 29 broken bones, including two in his neck that caused spinal cord damage and technically left him a quadriplegic.

A helicopter crash had sent Ideson to the hospital, where he spent six weeks before moving to St. Joseph’s Health Care’s rehabilitation centre for another five months.

A licensed pilot for seven years, Ideson crashed his helicopter into a field west of Cambridge during a test flight on Feb. 2, 2007. Doctors gave him the worst-case scenario for a prognosis: he’d never walk again.

But he has defied many of the initial prognoses. He quickly gained the use of his arms and legs, and although he’s confined to a wheelchair, Ideson is able to walk with the aid of a walker.

And intensive physiotherapy over the years has allowed the Londoner to participate in many of the activities he enjoyed in his pre-accident life, most notably the sport of curling — which brings us to Ideson’s ultimate high over the last six years.

That occurred last month when he travelled to Sochi, Russia, and competed in the 2013 World Wheelchair Curling Championships alongside the Canadian team that won its third gold medal in the last four years. The Londoner, who served as an alternate on the team, said the experience was an unforgettable one.

“A few of the highlights for me were meeting players from across the world, and the excitement and enthusiasm of the volunteers,” he said, adding that he’ll never forget throwing his first rock in the international competition.

The Canadian team, led by skip Jim Armstrong, played 12 games in all, beating Team Sweden 4-3 in the final. Ideson saw action in only one game as the alternate, but was thrilled to contribute to the victory.

“I felt extremely proud and honoured,” he said. “And I felt fortunate to be surrounded by such a positive and supportive group of teammates and staff.”

Prior to his accident, Ideson had curled able-bodied with his friends in a league in his hometown of Parry Sound. He has now been curling in a wheelchair at the Ilderton Curling Club for three years.

In 2011, he skipped his Ilderton team to a third-place finish at the Ontario Wheelchair Curling Championships, and then won the same event in 2012. At last year’s Canadian Championships in Thunder Bay, he earned a bronze medal.

Now, he’s hoping to return to the international stage next year when the Canadian team heads back to the Ice Cube Curling Center in Sochi for the 2014 Paralympic Games.

“I’d love to have the opportunity to go back,” Ideson said. “The team hasn’t been announced yet, but all I can do is continue to practice. I’m going to work hard and be physically and psychologically prepared for whatever the coaches and team require of me.”

FACEBOOK for Nationals

 

The host committee  have set up a Facebook page for the CWCC which can be found at:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Canadian-Wheelchair-Curling-Championship-2013/497647726974389

In conjunction with our partners at the CCA the wcblog2 will bring to you 7 cameras feature all sheets, with LIVE chat and social stream stream so you can log on and ask questions as the games happen. Feature game will occur as always but this time we will be cutting in on all 4 other sheets to bring you coverage of those games at the same time.

LIVE chat, twitter updates and much more. The best coverage ever of a Natioanl Championship. No were not TSN but we do try! So log on to our channel at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/wcblog2

Get your families to watch, the kids , the grand kids, everyone is welcome. Let's really break some records! Leave us a comment on what you want to see or what you think of the expected coverage!